Too Much Social Media Leads to Unhappy Relationships: Study

Couples who are busy “liking” each other on Facebook and other social media platforms have been put on notice by a new Oxford University study, which suggests they may soon find themselves disliking each other all the way to divorce court.

The study surveyed 3,500 couples who kept in touch via at least five different social media platforms, such as Facebook, emails, tweets, IM and texts, and found that they were 14% less satisfied with their relationship than their counterparts who either didn’t use social media at all, or used fewer platforms.

“Using these media is great in moderation…but more is not necessarily better,” commented Oxford Internet Institute’s Dr. Bernie Hogan “We need to walk back from the idea that more communication by more media is a good thing. We have been drunk on new media over the past ten years. Now we realise that its absence is bad, but overuse is also bad. It’s important to be accessible without being overbearing.”

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